Keep it short, nominees told
2006-02-14 08:36
Los Angeles - A star-studded cast of nominees for this year's Oscars cast aside competition and jitters on Monday to toast their success at a laid-back celebration that left everyone feeling like a winner.
A constellation of Hollywood greats joined with a phalanx of Oscars newcomers for a relaxed and sometimes schoolroom-like afternoon at the 25th anniversary Oscar nominees luncheon at a plush hotel in Beverly Hills.
"We have tried to create an event where all the nominees come together and relax and celebrate their 'nomineeness'," Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Sid Ganis told the 116 Oscar nominees.
"There are no winners here today, there are no losers here today, just members of a really special club," he told the crowd that included movie mogul Steven Spielberg and a host of previous Oscar winners such as South Africa's Charlize Theron and United States actor William Hurt.
Tasty lunch
Best actress nominee Felicity Huffman, star of TransAmerica as well as television's Desperate Housewives, said she was "riding pretty high", claiming she was so excited that she arrived at the luncheon hours early.
"I was here setting up the tables. I'm not eager. I'm not green," she joked.
Australian best actor hopeful Heath Ledger kissed and cuddled with fellow Brokeback Mountain nominee Michelle Williams, his real-life fiancee, during the event, and the two chatted and laughed with Jake Gyllenhaal, nominated as best supporting actor in the gay cowboy movie Brokeback.
Triple nominee George Clooney meanwhile quipped about his progression from television soap actor to movie superstar and hobnobbed with famous pals at the do.
The nominees, who were treated to a lunch of peppered goat cheese salad, Kyoto beef roll, Peking duck, sauteed beef tenderloin and a chocolate raspberry tart topped with a chocolate film roll, were also warned not to bore the world with dull speeches if they win a golden statuette on March 5.
The producer of the Oscars telecast, which is watched by up to one billion people across the globe, lectured nominees on their duty to be interesting and memorable, warning he would cut them off if they tried to read off lists of thank-yous.
Gone in 60 seconds
Producer Gil Cates told the nominees to think about what they intended to say in the 60 seconds between their name being called and them leaving the stage, and said that an interminable list of people to thank was a show killer.
"Who says an acceptance speech has to be about gratitude? It could be about anything at all; anything that gives the whole world at a key moment in your life an indication that you are a creative and intelligent person," Cates said.
Also attending the luncheon were Capote actor Philip Seymour Hoffman and some of his competition for best actor, including Ledger, Terrence Howard for Hustle and Flow and Joaquin Phoenix for Walk the Line.
Phoenix's co-star in the Johnny Cash biopic, Hollywood darling Reese Witherspoon, was also there, along with fellow best actress nominees Knightley, Huffman for Transamerica and Theron for North Country.
But some nominees, including Brokeback director Ang Lee, Constant Gardener actress Rachel Weisz and Cinderella Man co-star Paul Giamatti, were thwarted from attending the luncheon by record snowfalls in New York which stranded them in the Big Apple.